As any communications pro can attest, shaping the media narrative of a brand, campaign, or organization has grown increasingly difficult. The media landscape is vast, runs deep, and permeates our lives via television, print, the internet, and even art and experiences. The sheer volume of data to parse— estimated to reach 180 zetabytes by 2025 —is mindboggling. Furthermore, mass media content specifically is...
February 2024 marked two years since the latest conflict in Ukraine began. As well as its tragic impact on so many lives, the war has also brought new third-party risks which companies need manage–or face supply chain interruptions or even enforcement action by regulators. In this blog, we look at the main risks for companies and suggest how they should respond. Legal and financial risks of two years of ever...
Recent years have been characterized by supply chain disruption–from Covid-19 to the Suez blockage to the invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, companies who fail to identify and manage illegal or unethical activity in their supply chain face increasing regulatory, reputational, financial, and strategic risks. In this blog, we look at some of these risks, and show how smart use of data and technology can give companies...
Anyone who’s used the internet for their own shopping or banking needs has undoubtedly already seen examples of embedded finance (abbreviated as EmFi). And yet, the average consumer would likely have no idea how to define the term “embedded finance.” But EmFi’s growing popularity makes it more than just a simple buzzword or pop-up window,; it's a key financial services trend that finance pros...
While global supply chain risk is certainly not new, our need and ability to identify and assess it quickly affects every facet of our businesses. From the ESG expectations of consumers and the increasing global regulations to company board and c-suite expectations, supply chain transparency and risk management is of the utmost importance for success. During the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions plagued at...
Top Risks to Address for Third Party Due Diligence Only have a minute? Watch this quick video for a summary of the key points of the article. Third parties help companies to deliver their products and services, but they also expose them to regulatory, financial, strategic, and reputational risks. In this blog, we look at five key third party risks facing your company. Then, we explain how companies can mitigate...
The intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and business pulses with potential, especially since generative AI (GenAI) has entered the picture. Google research scientist Oriol Vinyals notes, “Generative models are changing the way we think about machine intelligence and creativity, and have the potential to transform industries from media to finance to healthcare.” Of course, the insights you gain are...
This year’s Kroll Financial Crime Report found companies are growing increasingly concerned that third parties are driving a higher risk of financial crime. We read through the report to pull out lessons for companies from this survey of 400 executives across 8 countries. By implementing these lessons–with help from LexisNexis –firms can improve their management of third-party risk. “Third...
If you’ve been following the growth of Artificial Intelligence, it’s likely that you’ve interacted with, or at least seen, Generative AI. Systems like DALL-E and ChatGPT fall into this category, making it an incredibly hot topic in the world of technological advancement, but what does Generative AI even mean? In short, this type of AI generates things like text, images, and videos. It can respond to...
Millions of companies around the world have been impacted by regulations that mandate them to carry out ESG and human rights due diligence (HRDD) in the last few years–or they soon will be. These regulations bring new legal, financial, strategic, and reputational risks for firms. However, navigating this regulatory landscape is further complicated by disparate requirements across jurisdictions and the nuanced interpretations...
Some have decried social media as the “death of journalism,” but this isn’t a new complaint. In fact, the downfall of “traditional journalism” has been a point of contention since the emergence of television first threatened newspaper readership in the 1950s. The truth is that new platforms have forced traditional media to adapt and evolve—often for the better. It’s no surprise...
In the year 2022, corporations gave over $21 billion to nonprofits. Corporate giving is not simply something that happens around the holidays as a public relations appeal; corporations are finding ways to participate in charity and change the world year-round. There are two major paths toward this: corporate foundations and corporate responsibility (CR) programs. A foundation requires the corporation to create its own...
Institutions that rely on fundraising for their typical operations continually get more creative about finding donors. Whether that’s a shift to social media for fundraising efforts or changing the target list of donors, non-profits are tasked with keeping up with new trends in fundraising to stay ahead of the competition. One such trend is the shift toward corporate sponsorship. More and more institutions have...
The introduction of the internet and, later, smartphones has fueled the rise of a new type of digital media, ranging from blogs and comment boards to vlogs, podcasts, social media influencers, and beyond. And as each of these emerging channels began to gain influence on consumers, they’ve almost universally been met with intense skepticism. Are they a flash in the pan? Do they have a negative impact on society...
ChatGPT and Bard, DALL-E and Starryai: Generative AI (GenAI) tools are taking the world by storm, igniting conversations, and shaping future possibilities in ways we've only begun to explore. As the World Economic Forum notes, “After years of research, it appears that artificial intelligence (AI) is reaching a sort of tipping point, capturing the imaginations of everyone from students saving time on their essay...
If you’ve logged onto the internet in 2023, you’ve probably heard about AI advancements. From appealing AI filters on social media to the March 14, 2023 release of GPT-4, artificial intelligence (AI) has become all the rage, and that’s not likely to end anytime soon. But what does AI have to do with film and media production? Generative AI, a category of intelligence that creates content like text...
While “fake news” has always been around, the term rose in popularity since the 2016 elections. In mid-2016, an analyst for Buzzfeed found the top “fake news” stories about the US presidential campaign received more engagement on Facebook than stories from major media outlets, which caused a threat to serious media coverage due to the oversaturation of these falsified stories. This same analyst...
Starting in 2024, US companies operating within the European Union face new legal directives – the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD/CS3D) --that increase their need to engage in effective and on-going ESG and Human Rights Due Diligence across the whole of their production chains. The comprehensive directives range from fair labor...
Podcasts, blogs and social media sites make it easy for anyone to share their thoughts—who among us hasn’t sent a hastily-typed missive into the ether for our friends and followers to enjoy? But sharing misinformation on the web, intentionally or not, can have real legal consequences. Proper research and fact-checking have been a cornerstone of journalism since its inception, but these skills are increasingly...
Fake news has permeated nearly every part of modern culture: law and politics, entertainment and celebrities, science, and technology. Even language has adapted, giving rise to terms like “post-truth era” and “alternative facts” that reflect how widespread fake news has become. As a result, relationships between audiences and publishers—including businesses engaged in media production and...
There have been major developments driving rapid regulatory changes across the world with regards to financial crime monitoring. In this blog, we explore seven ways companies should respond to these emerging regulatory risks. Implementing these best practices for compliance and due diligence will not only help companies to meet regulators’ expectations, but it should protect their business from the growing complexity...
Films help us bring the past to life. We can step into a theater and see a perfectly recreated 1950s New York City street, or watch a historically accurate representation of an 1800s courtroom brawl, and be absorbed into those eras. But behind the scenes, the seamless transitions from past to present take a lot of work. Historical research is pivotal in film for the same reason it was important to hide Starbucks cups...
Financial crime regulations have changed rapidly in recent years–from Switzerland to Singapore, from Brazil to Bahrain. In this blog, we identify and summarize four major developments which are driving regulatory changes across the world to help companies to prepare for future regulatory interventions. 1. Financial crime regulations are not standing still Laws and regulations often change very gradually over...
Sometimes, they are stories that win Pulitzer Prizes. Sometimes, they are stories that become blockbuster movies. And occasionally, the fruits of investigative journalism are both. Take Woodward and Bernstein’s Watergate reporting for The Washington Post , for example. It earned the paper the 1973 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service and inspired “ All the President’s Men .” Likewise, investigative...
Over the last five years, the dominant regulatory trend in global compliance has been the spread of legislation which mandates companies to carry out Human Rights and ESG Due Diligence (HRDD) on third parties and suppliers. This has significant implications for any company operating in a jurisdiction with HRDD regulations–or whose third parties and suppliers operate there. In this blog, we explain why responding...